A level qualification 'must hold value' so hard cheese for this years's candidates

I feel that the quality of the Education secretaries has been abysmal. It's almost as if Education does not matter.

Absolutely westendgirl. I agree winterwhite that the students awaiting A level results this year have had a very poor deal, as have undergraduates, with Covid et al. It will be years before schoolchildren recover what has been lost in the last five years. I suspect that the Education Secretary doesn't have teenagers..

I feel so sorry for the undergraduates who have completed their courses but their exams have not been marked or graded because of striking academics. Some of the international ones cannot extend their visas to continue their studies because it (the extension) depends upon their having to demonstrate satisfactory progress.

When I did my undergraduate degree I had worked for a 1st and knew my performance merited one. I would have been very angry to graduate with a "unclassified" degree because so much depended upon it. How are these young people going to convince employers that they were "expecting" a good degree when all this years tranche of graduates are being lumped together?

To me the numbers of university students who have dropped out indicate that the inflated grades they were given masked the fact they were not really capable of university study.
All the assessments meticulously recorded since the beginning of formal education in Reception class proved worthless, or were ignored.
Perhaps more attention will be paid to academic education and rather less to PSHE.

I dont think that's why they are dropping out, I would be dropping out if I had paid money for generally a very poor service over the last few years.

I have two grandchildren, cousins, awaiting A level results. One needs a certain number of UCAS points for an apprenticeship, but has no plan B. The other intends doing a gap year, and may not take up a place at uni or else do a different subject the following year, or look for an apprenticeship. There are so many uncertainties this time. In both cases they may or may not get their grades, but both feel university is now such an expensive option.

In some universities you really have to be able to stand on your own two feet. Independence of thinking. Sink or swim. That’s what life is like in the world of work. That was my son’s experience of the LSE and it suited him very well. Others were not cut out for not being ‘taught’ everything, and dropped out.

A niece graduated this year - she was really hoping and working very hard for first - and got it, so we were very happy for her.
But I found out soon afterwards that all the other 6 who shared the same house, had also got firsts! Such a thing would have been unheard of not so long ago.
At least they were given a grade, though.

In case anyone’s wondering, it’s a uni that’s not in the very top rankings, but has certainly been RG and maybe still is.

Agree to an extent, GSM. The point under discussion is that the really pretty raw deal meted out to school children during the pandemic has not been recognised let alone rectified.

Their schools were closed for months. If open, pupils had to stay at home for 10 days whenever a close friend tested positive. Online teaching only worked for children with all-day access to a laptop, and had to be prepared on the hoof. Teachers constantly complained that they were unable to complete the syllabus.

These are the pigeons that are now coming to roost. --We should not be blaming the students if they are not as fully prepared for university as the cohorts of 2019 and earlier.

Grade inflation is real, though, and is fair to nobody. When DD graduated in 1987 from a top tier university only 4 of the 100 undergraduates reading her subject were awarded Firsts. I don’t think many of the 96 felt hard done by.

Education has never been fair at all - or had consistent/constant 'standards' followed every year. We just get that impression. At least, if standards are higher this year, that should or will be for all candidates, so the same number will qualify for the usual amount of uni places.

When I was teaching, I was always encouraging independent study. Spoon feeding and memorising information does little to educate anyone.

I felt I often had to go back to basics (or start all over again) to compensate for their abysmal school 'education' experiences, change their expectations and the awful study habits they'd acquired.

'A' levels do very little to prepare somebody for university anyway. They act as a filter (or barrier), a rough measure, at least, of some competence in understanding and presenting information, that's all.

I found that some graduates, particularly Oxbridge, when assigned to me under a training contract, were unable to think for themselves. They had been spoon fed at university and frequently also in a public school and expected that to continue. It didn’t. The universities which produce self-reliant independent thinkers are well known.

It was apparent that over the last couple of years, when teacher assessment was used, the schools with the most increased grades were private schools. There was less change in the results from state schools.

It will be interesting to see what happens this year.

Interesting, Growstuff. Is any of this connected to the strict marking schemes now used by some exam boards to ensure uniformity (genuine question)?
I.e (I believe) each question has a semi-model answer with marks awarded for certain facts mentioned / points made. Meaning that no/few marks can be awarded for material that is not in the marking scheme. If this is so, obviously teachers would teach strictly to what needed to be covered. And maybe private schools have a different system.

Germanshepherdsmum

I found that some graduates, particularly Oxbridge, when assigned to me under a training contract, were unable to think for themselves. They had been spoon fed at university and frequently also in a public school and expected that to continue. It didn’t. The universities which produce self-reliant independent thinkers are well known.

Is this a dig at Oxford. Few upils at the local Academy went there, mainly for medicine, one to Cambridge. Good for them. Think being spoon-fed is the fault of previous poor schooling , not encouraging self research, and indulgent parenting. Not the university per say.
Will agree that school children had an inexcusable poor deal during Covid. Although my dear GS , given much school work to do, rather enjoyed his home school time.

Just my experience of trainee solicitors who had not, during their school or university careers, been taught to think and research for themselves. It was particularly prevalent amongst ex-public school Oxbridge graduates. I have mentioned above the very different approach of the LSE, for instance.

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